


The End Of The Tunnel

by Bam4Me



Series: Is Brighter And Louder Than You Wanted It To Be [1]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, HES NOT EXACTLY GOOD EITHER BUT HES NOT BAD, Howard Stark Is Honestly A Good Dad In This, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, I hate myself for that, Its funny because theyre both comedies that are SUPPOSED to be tragic, Kidnapping, LOKI NEVER INVADED EARTH HES NOT BAD, Long Term Kidnapping, Refs to Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Stockholm Syndrome, That was not actually intended but it HAPPENED, Time Travel, Tony-centric, Ugh, Unbreabable Tony Stark, but only slight, kidnapped tony, will have sequels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-28
Updated: 2016-03-28
Packaged: 2018-05-29 13:55:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6378718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Avengers find a person who's supposed to have been dead for the past 32 years, and then another one just fucking POPS UP like it's a freaking party, no one knows what to do really. LUCKILY, since NO ONE knows what to do, no one cares if you just fudge it as you go along!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The End Of The Tunnel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Usheryes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Usheryes/gifts).



> I've had this idea for a WHILE now... wrote it in a few days... plus my computer crashed a little halfway through, so it was weird. Uh... my sister helped a LOT, love that woman, she lets me send her the STUPIDEST ideas.
> 
> Next coming up if I start working on it any time soon, is either gonna be updates of some of my more recent fics, a sequel or two of this one, ORRRRRRR, a Pirates of the Carribean AU that ALSO involves time travel and is Tony-centric. It's gay.

“I never would have guessed, of all the things, that Stane liked rock and roll.”

The rest of the Avengers gave Clint a funny look, but Steve replied, a funny look on his face. “As far as I know, he  _ doesn’t _ though? The only sounds that man likes are his own voice and the piano he plays.”

They all knew that Clint had a penchant for crawling through the vents, something that make Stane yell at him more than once, but Clint kept at it. Clint grinned at the super soldier, “You seem a little vicious about that answer, Captain.”

Bucky was grinning at the back of Steve’s head, making everyone in the room amused. Steve just wrinkled his nose up though. “I just don’t understand it. Everyone said that Howard was such a good man before him and his son disappeared. I just can’t imagine that a  _ good person _ wouldn’t understand how much of a creep he is, much less one that cared as much about his little boy as much as everyone told me Howard cared about Tony.”

Clint winced at that, sitting down next to Natasha on the couch. He looked up a little nervously, “Are you sure we should be discussing  _ this _ in the tower?”

Steve looked up at the ceiling with his mouth still twisted into an upset scowl. Jarvis was oddly silent. Steve waited a few more seconds before smirking. “Something tells me that J isn’t exactly gonna tell on us, Clint.” He sighed, leaning back against Bucky’s side. “Look, it’s not all that often that Stane is out of town for a  _ whole month _ , can we  _ not _ talk about him while he’s not here?”

Clint made an honestly surprised face at that, and Steve caught him reaching up to fiddle with his right hearing aid for a moment. “I’m sorry, what was that? I think my battery is dying.”

Phil reached over and poked Clint’s hand to the side, sitting on the couch next to him. “Your aid’s not broken, Clint. What’s up?”

Clint just shook  his head, looking upset, “Why does no one ever tell me this shit? He’s gone for a whole month?”

Steve sighed, “Calm down, Clint, he’ll build you new toys when he gets back from whatever he’s doing.”

Clint shook his head again, sounding a little like a teapot. Steve wasn’t all that sure he could hear the sound all that well, because he made it more often than he thought he did. “If Stane is gone, who’s in his apartment? There’s music up there, loud enough for even  _ me _ to hear properly, and a bunch of banging sounds like they’re working on something big.”

They looked up at Jarvis for a moment, and didn’t get an immediate reply. When they did, it was a shock to all. “I am not authorized to divulge this information at the current moment-“

Clint looked more shocked than all of them, probably because he was the most worried about it. “Oh my god, oh my god, that’s  _ not _ an answer that I like-“

“Calm down, Cupid, he’s probably just cheating a little. You know how Stane’s all obsessed over being the best of the best. You really think it’s all that surprising that he’d hire someone to do his work for him and take the credit?”

Clint rolled his eyes at Bucky. “Yes, I fully understand that he would do that, but what I don’t understand, is why they’re in  _ his _ lab, and not the one for the scientists he keeps on retainer.”

There was a huff of a sigh on the previously silent section of the room, and they all looked over to see Loki, sitting with Thor while he tried to ignore his annoying brother, finally put down his book and level them all with a tired look. “It’s just Anthony. That’s where he  _ lives _ .”

Steve’s nose wrinkled up. “Stane has… a… secret boyfriend? One that he hides-“

“Kidnapped probably-“

Steve cut him off, looking a little pissed, “Okay, I  _ understand _ not wanting to go public with dating someone of the same sex, even now days it’s got a ridiculous amount of backlash to it, but literally, almost everyone in this room is in a same sex relationship right now, half of us are gay as  _ hell _ , and the other half are quite open about not caring about gender in particular, why would he even hide that from us at all-“

“Well, if he’s not there of his own free will-“

Steve sighed, “Clint, I may not like Stane, and now I just think he’s an idiot, but that doesn’t mean I think he  _ kidnaps _ people-“

“Clint’s right.”

They all looked back over at Loki, and Steve swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. Loki was hardly ever wrong about something. “E-excuse me?”

Loki rolled his eyes, “Anthony did not  _ choose _ to be there. I think he much prefers to live on the west coast, but Stane chooses his living quarters for him. Anthony is quite cross at him for that, but he’s not here of his own free will.”

Clint could probably hear a pin drop if one did, the room was so quiet. His heart picked up though, and now he wouldn’t be able to hear it, over the rush of blood pounding in his ears. “Loki, did you just admit to knowing that Stane kidnapped a person, and not doing anything about it?”

Loki looked between them all, wide eyed and a little confused, “But, you always tell me it’s not my place to meddle in the lives of mortals-“

“Unless they’ve been kidnapped and held against their will! Loki, if that man’s not up there of his own free will, than Stane’s not only a kidnapper, but he’s broken  _ many _ human laws, and we need to  _ know _ about that!”

Loki made an odd noise, and Thor stared at him with wide eyes. “So… we should take the boy, and place him somewhere else?”

Steve’s eyes narrowed, “Loki, how old is Anthony?”

Loki paused, considering the question, “Physically, or mentally? Because I believe his mental growth to be quite stunted by his captivity-“

Steve took in a shocked breath, “Christ, it’s Anthony Stark, isn’t it? He’s been holding Anthony Stark captive for the past thirty years, hasn’t he?”

Loki winced. “It’s probably closer to thirty-two-“

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my  _ god _ .” They all looked over at Clint, who may or may not be hyperventilating right now. “Oh god, oh god-“

“Take deep breaths, Clint.”

Clint shook his head, looking upset, “We’ve been  _ living _ with a kidnapper, Phil! Oh god, he’s been missing since he was  _ six _ .”

Steve looked a little close to hyperventilation too, “If he’s been missing since he was six, where’s Howard? He went missing at the same time.”

Loki shrugged, “He’s not in the penthouse with Tony. I’ve only talked to him a few times up there, but Tony says that he went missing right before Howard did.”

Steve glared at the god, “Loki, why didn’t you help him? Why didn’t you get him  _ out _ ?”

Loki shrugged, “He said he was fine there. He said he didn’t  _ want _ to leave.”

Steve nodded, “Stockholm Syndrome. He thinks he’s safe there as long as he’s good. As long as he does what Stane asks him to.”

Phil stood up off the couch, phone in hand, and looked up at the ceiling. “Jarvis, we know he’s up there. I’d like to talk with him. Preferably  _ before _ SHIELD arrives. I don’t want them to startle him when they get here.”

There was a long pause, and Phil didn’t question it, assuming he was speaking with Anthony. “Sir wishes to request that you give him some time. He does not get many visitors, and never while Mister Stane is not here.”

Phil nodded, “SHIELD will be here in two hours. How long do I wait?”

“…half an hour should be appropriate time to wait. Sir asks that you bring everyone up with you.”

Phil frowned, “That might be a bit much, is he sure he wants to?”

“Sir believes it would be best.”

Steve vaguely noted that Jarvis  _ never _ called Stane ‘Sir’. “Jarvis, did Tony make you?”

Jarvis sounded more than a little proud this time. Steve doubted he’s ever been able to admit this. “Sir did in fact create me. Sir has created many things.”

Steve smiled a little sadly, “He uh… he got Howard’s petulance for that, didn’t he?”

Jarvis was silent a moment, “I never met Howard, but Sir speaks highly of his father, even to this day.”

Steve looked like he might actually cry. Bucky knew him well enough that he might. “Jarvis, is Tony alright? Physically?”

Jarvis paused again, “I believe that should be an assessment you make for yourself.”

Bucky’s eyes went wide. Shit, he’d asked that to  _ reassure  _ Steve, not make this worse. Fuck though, if Tony was hurt, he’d try and strangle Stane himself.

Steve looked like he was going to regardless.

Phil and Natasha looked to be the only actual composed ones in the room, but the way that Phil had his eyes on his cell phone’s clock, and the slight pulse jumping in his neck, they could all tell that he was going to hold Jarvis to his estimate of half an hour, whether any of them liked it or not.

Phil got up when there were two minutes left, and Steve actually raised an eyebrow. Normally, Phil was exactly on time, no matter what, but the man just quietly moved to the elevator, looking impatient, Clint at his heels like normal. The rest of them followed suit. Thor gave his brother a look that the rest of them couldn’t read, and Loki disappeared from the room without a thought.

“Where’s he going?”

Thor frowned, “If my brother has spoken with Anthony before, it might be best for him to arrive first.”

Steve looked up at the ceiling when the elevator’s doors opened, “That alright, Jarvis?”

Jarvis sounded slightly frazzled when he answered, but they all just packed into the elevator. “Tony seems surprised, but not unhappy at this development.”

Phil nodded tightly, arms crossed while he watched the flashing numbers on the panel in the elevator. He hadn’t said anything for a while, and Bucky silently added him to the ‘going to strangle Stane’ list.

When the door opened, Jarvis directed them down a hallway, and into a large open room. It had windows, but Bucky’d bet anything that you couldn’t see in the apartment from the outside. Loki was standing next to a work table, and a man was sitting on one of the stools next to him. He had a nervous look about him, eyes a bit wild, and was biting into the pad of his left thumb in what they suspected was a nervous habit.

“Anthony?”

Tony frowned, and pulled the thumb away from his mouth, scowling at Phil. “I don’t like being called that. Only Obie calls me that.”

Phil nodded, “My apologies. May I call you Tony?”

Tony nodded, looking suspicious. He looked over at one of the windows nervously, thumb back to his mouth, biting into the soft flesh of it while he did so. He kind of looked like he wanted to climb out the window and run away.

None of them could bring themselves to blame him for it at all.

Tony looked back, eyes narrowing down on Bucky. He pulled his thumb back, “Your arm’s made of metal.”

Bucky looked surprised, looking down at his arm before going back up to Tony. “Yes, it is. It’s cybernetic.”

Tony nodded, looking intently at the arm. “Can I see it? Obie said he’d let me see it, but he’s only let me see scans of it. He says he didn’t want you to know I was here. I want to see it though.”

The thumb went right back up to his mouth, and Steve suddenly got the feeling that he was trying to shut himself up. He felt a sickening knot in the pit of his stomach, realizing that he’d probably developed that after Stane had taken him, since he’d yet to see a single picture of Tony with Howard where he’d bitten his thumb. Tony had always looked so damn happy in pictures with Howard, not this anxiety filled man in front of them who thought he had to shut himself up because they didn’t want to hear him speak.

It looked like he wasn’t biting it hard enough to bleed, but he could see the skin was pink when he momentarily pulled it back.

Bucky gave Tony a smile, and Steve immediately knew it was fake. Steve knew he hated having his arm messed with if he didn’t have to, but Bucky was willing to let him, if only to calm the man down.

Loki had said that Tony was possibly mentally stunted from his isolation. Steve would bet anything that he hadn’t seen anyone Stane didn’t want him to, for over thirty years now.

Bucky cautiously came into the room while the others came in behind him, and sat on the closest stool to Tony, holding out the cybernetic arm. Tony immediately latched onto it, making the other super soldier wince, but he didn’t notice, too busy looking at it from all angles.

“Tony, have you ever seen working cybernetic parts before?”

Tony glanced up at Phil before shrugging, going back to looking at Buck’s elbow. Bucky’s arm seemed to move and bend like it was real, and that did fascinate him. “Only my own. But mine doesn’t move, so this is really interesting.”

The others in the room were shocked into silence and Steve had to clamp his mouth shut, grinding his teeth to avoid cursing up a storm. He wasn’t going to strangle Stane, he was going to rip his throat out.

Bucky cocked his head to the side a little. His shoulders had relaxed massively when Tony admitted Bucky wasn’t the only one though. Steve knew that people with prosthetics tended to know enough not to push each other’s buttons in a bad way. “Is your prosthetic  _ supposed _ to move, Tony?”

Tony looked up again, already making notes on a nearby tablet, fingers moving a mile a minute. They barely slowed any when he looked at them. “No. If mine moves, that would be really bad. It could electrocute me and make my heart stop.”

Steve’s eyebrows furrowed, “Is it a pace maker, Tony?”

Tony snorted, “Uh, kind of. Hell of a fancy pace maker though. Big too, I wouldn’t suggest one if you don’t have to, it’s kind of annoying. Can’t sleep on my stomach anymore.”

Bucky nodded, but made no move to ask any more questions, and gave the rest of the group a hard look, making them know to keep their traps shut too.

Phil nodded, coming over to pull another stool over near Bucky, and sit on it. He had his own tablet out, and looked ready to take a statement. Steve supposed, that’s kind of what he was doing. Tony’s fingers faltered on the tablet for less than a second before he was back at it, ignoring him like a pro.

“Tony, how come up live up here?”

Tony paused again, finally looking up at Phil for longer than half a second. He brought a hand up to his mouth again, but didn’t exactly bite down this time, holding the soft pad of his thumb against his upper teeth. “’s where Obie put me. Supposed to stay where Obie puts me.”

Phil nodded, hard face falling to a look of utter hopelessness for a second. He could see Tony’s future now, and it was involving a  _ lot _ of therapy. “How long have you lived with Obie?”

Tony thought about that for a second. “Well, I was six I guess. ‘bout thirty years? Thirty-two?”

Phil nodded again, “Why’d you start living with Obie?”

Tony paused, letting go of Bucky’s hand entirely. “I’m not stupid.”

Phil cocked his head to the side, “I never implied you were.”

Tony nodded, “Yeah. You’re implying it right now. Just because I stay with him, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.”

Phil wasn’t the one that answered. “ _ Why _ do you stay with him though?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Because he took me when I was six and I had no choice over the matter? That a good enough reason?”

Clint came over to Phil’s chair, one hand going to Phil’s knee in his own nervous gesture. Clint got upset around captive adults. Children? Those he could take care of. You can coddle a child and make sure they were okay, but adults lashed out. Adults who had been captive almost as long as they were alive, they lashed out in fear, and inability to process their own surroundings with their new found freedom.

Clint liked people who he could take care of, but he’d never known how to take care of adults. He’d only managed with Natasha because he had  _ wanted _ her freedom, not had it forced on her, and right now, it was looking like Tony didn’t exactly want it like she had.

Tony surprised them all, turning around to look at a bot. It looked like it was just a massive claw on wheels, and it rolled over to them when Tony cocked his head at it. It made whirling and chirping noises at them all, before nudging Tony’s right shoulder.

“He said… he said he would take away my bots if I tried to leave again. He’s done it before.” Tony turned back around, the bot still behind him. He had a few tears in his eyes. “Last… uh, last time I got in trouble, Obie said he’d erase Dummy’s code if I wasn’t good. He took him and Butterfingers and You away for a while. I missed them a lot, and I just wanted them back, so I was good. You’re not going to let him take them from me again, are you?”

Clint shook his head before anyone else could react. “No. No way in hell are we letting him take them from you. They’re yours, and no one can take them from you.”

Tony looked over at him with big eyes now. Clint felt sort of sick to his stomach. He knew how to deal with captive children, and Tony seemed to fit the idea of a captive child very well.

Children didn’t have much. They had toys. They had clothes. Sometimes they had gardens or pictures. But overall, they didn’t own much. Everything they owned though, was given to them.

From what Jarvis had said earlier, Tony probably created these bots himself. He was essentially their parent.

Clint may not always get along with captive adults, but he always knew how to reassure the ones who were willingly captive to protect their children.

It was kind of like a child. You don’t own a child, but having the threat of them being taken away from you, looming over your head at all times, it was enough to make anyone complacent, no matter their age.

Tony smiled a little. “You’ll let me keep them?”

Steve make a horrible squeaking noise, like the knot in his stomach was trying to become sentient and make itself known, but Phil ignored him, even as Tony gave him a worried look. “No one’s  _ letting _ you keep them, Tony. They’re  _ yours _ . We don’t have any right to take them away from you. No one does.”

Tony frowned, looking confused. “You’ll let me keep them though, right?”

He’d probably had enough of people not outright saying what they mean, and getting tricked because of it.

“Yes. You can keep them.”

Tony smiled outright, and Steve felt his heart break a little bit more. “Thank you!”

Phil looked down at his tablet he’d been periodically making notes on, and back up to Tony. “Can I ask you a few more questions, Tony?”

Tony shrugged, “Sure.”

Phil nodded. “Tony, do you know what happened to your father?”

Tony looked down, biting his lip. “I… I don’t think Obie did that.”

Phil frowned. “You don’t think Obie took your father?”

Tony shook his head, “No. When Daddy disappeared, Obie got really angry. He said he’d taken me from him because I was too distracting, but then Daddy went missing too, and he got really upset. He was happier when he found out that he owned Stark Industries, but he was still angry about Daddy going missing.”

Phil bit his lip, looking worried for the first time since he’d sat down. Fuck, this just makes things a little more complicated. He was really hoping that he could finally figure out what’d happened to Howard Stark so they could close that case.

He heard a clearing throat, and turned to give Loki a pointed look. “Something to add?”

Loki’s lips twisted up. He wasn’t exactly  _ used _ to being a good person. “I could figure out what happened to him.”

Tony turned and gave the god an uneasy look. “Like… how you just kind of pop in and out of nowhere all the time? I don’t exactly like that.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Well, it’s not like I’m gonna do it to you. You want to know where your dad went, or not?”

Tony’s eyes had a wetness around them, and he looked suspiciously close to throwing a temper tantrum. Oh god, this is exactly what they need. Loki and Clint were immature enough, now there’s another one to cause a fuss at everything. “Yeah.”

Loki nodded tightly and disappeared from the room. Tony looked back at the others with an odd look on his face, and clenched his jaw. “Are you guys going to make me live somewhere else?”

Natasha looked at him with an intent eye. “Would you  _ like _ to live somewhere else?”

Tony thought about it for a minute, before shrugging. “I’d like to live somewhere that Obie’s not.”

Phil smiled, “That can be arranged. In fact, I have the suspicions that he’ll be living in a small, uncomfortable room, soon.”

Tony grinned, “That means jail, right? I’d like that as well. He can’t take away my bots if he’s there.”

Clint smiled. Two other bots came out of what looked like charging stations and were flanking Tony’s back. They seemed very protective over their creator.

“Don’t worry; I don’t think that he’s going to be any bother to you any time soon.”

And then Loki appeared back into the room. He wasn’t alone.

That’s when the freaking out  _ really _ ensued.

***

“So… it’s like… Loki was the one that kidnapped my father?”

Loki had an odd look on his face, and was looking between the elder and younger Starks’. “I don’t… I don’t know if I was  _ supposed _ to do that, but you said he went missing a week after you did, and so I followed him around for a week. When that had passed, I realized something was up, and then it hit me. I think I was the one that took him in the first place. Either that, or I just saved him from whoever took him the first time around. Which, if I did, it doesn’t seem to have changed anything, so it’s not that bad, right?”

Phil honestly couldn’t find anything wrong with that. “Good job, Loki. For once, I think you fucked up a little less than everyone thought you would.”

Loki wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.

“Howard?”

Steve poked the man in the arm, which was  _ probably _ a bad idea, seeing as Howard kept looking at him and Bucky like he was seeing ghosts, and hadn’t reacted to Tony at all. Howard barely startled though, looking at Steve with a wild eye, and let out a loud, shuddering breath. “Oh god, I’m dead, aren’t I? The people that took my son, came back and killed me too, didn’t they? Is this hell?” He looked at Steve closely for a second, eyes darting around the room before landing back on Steve. “No, me and Barnes I can see in hell, but you’re too much of a good person to end up there. Kind of a jerk when you want to be, but not enough to end up in hell. Oh god, I didn’t end up in hell. That’s almost just as surprising.”

He was cut off by Steve giving him a well placed slap –gently, but still, a slap- on the back of his head. “Howard you ass, just shut up and take a look around, okay? You’re not  _ dead _ .”

Howard took a look around, this time longer than the one before. His eyes lingered on everyone in the room, until they reached Tony, and his right hand fell from his face, a look of shock on his face. “But that’s not-“

Tony had his head cocked to the side. He kind of wanted to hug the man, but he also kind of wanted to run away from him in horror. He’d missed Howard.

After Howard had lost Steve in the ice, he’d thrown just about everything into finding him. It was his own funds, still going, that had lead to them finding Steve in the first place.

But, when Tony was born? When Tony had been born, it was like he could breathe again. Suddenly, the need to obsessively look for someone was gone.

For six whole years, he’d had a new reason to live. A reason that it wasn’t a bad idea to skip a day of work or two. A reason to get up in the morning.

And for the last week, he could barely find a reason to breathe at all, he felt so suffocated.

Those had been the best, and arguably, the only  _ good _ years of Tony’s life.

See, Howard knew one thing about ages. He knew this one thing, because it had always been his favorite thing about a person. One single thing about a person’s appearance almost never changed, barring any issues they have with it.

Eyes are the same size from birth to death, and after they turn six months old and change hue, that’s the colour they’ll be for the rest of their life unless altered.

He knew exactly what his son’s eyes looked like.

That couldn’t be possible. Not even slightly. None of this could be possible. But… he couldn’t help mouthing the name to himself.

“Tony?”

The man slowly slid off the stool he was sitting on, giving Howard a nervous look as he cautiously moved closer. He looked like he might startle more than any other person would, if Howard made any sudden movements, and so he didn’t make any, nervous to see the man’s reaction.

He ended up at Howard’s side, after a minute or so, that had felt like an eternity. He studied Howard’s face, and Howard felt as if he was trying to pass some test, sitting up straighter so he was in a better lighting for him.

Finally, the other man frowned, and reached up to poke at a spot under Howard’s left eye, making the other blink. “You look tired. Have you been sleeping okay? I don’t sleep okay very much. He makes me take pills when I don’t sleep enough. I don’t like them. You should sleep more.”

The man pulled back, making another nervous face and biting into the pad of his thumb, looking a little scared now.

Howard didn’t realize he was holding his breath until it came out of him in a stuttering gasp. “Tony?”

The man nodded, “Yeah. You don’t look any different. I guess I look a lot different though, right?”

Howard looked him up and down, taking in the small, waifish stature, and the way that he seemed to have his entire body tilted in another direction, like he was scared of being touched. “Yeah. Yeah, Buddy, you look a bit different.”

He turned to look at Steve and Bucky again, tone a little more aggressive now that it wasn’t directed at Tony. “What the  _ hell _ happened?”

Steve cringed, looking at Loki and back over to Phil.

Phil stood up from his stool. He seemed the most composed out them, but Steve knew he’d probably be the first to attack –and probably kill- Obadiah Stane if he were to show up before they could arrest him. He had a slightly manic look in his eyes like he wanted to throttle someone. He stayed a fair bit of distance from Tony with Clint still behind him though. “Tony, it’s about lunch time, I think maybe we should get something to eat. Do you have a kitchen up here?”

Tony nodded, pointing off to the side of the lab. The lab seemed to be a large dome shape, taking up the bulk majority of the penthouse, with rooms connected to it. Phil had the feeling that Stane liked it like that, to keep Tony in the mindset for building.

He could see the workings of several StarkPhones laying about, and some more complex pieces lying around otherwise.

Phil nodded, “Would you like to come with us? I don’t want to give you anything you might not like.”

Tony nodded. He looked kind of dejected at the idea of leaving Howard, but Phil knew they needed to get the man up to speed on things before SHIELD arrived in ten minutes. A tight schedule, but as Tony turned to start leaving, he pointed at his watch and Steve nodded. He knew they’d be fine in that time frame.

He turned when he heard more than one set of footsteps following him, and turned around to see Bruce following after them, a worried look on his face. Tony went straight for the fridge and started taking things out, both fruits and greens in one. Phil and Clint both frowned, but Bruce didn’t see anything weird, sitting at the small kitchen table on one side of the room.

They must have someone regularly delivering fresh food to the penthouse when the delivery guy comes to bring fresh food for the Avengers. It wouldn’t be that hard, since the majority of the levels had enough people on them that they all got regular food deliveries.

Everything was clean in the room, and Phil was having trouble figuring out if it was because Stane had just left that morning, or if Tony was a compulsive cleaner.

When Tony pulled over a blender and started tossing cut of food into it, Bruce spoke up. “Tony, do you forget to eat when Obadiah isn’t around?”

Tony looked a little wary of him, but answered none the less, cutting into something that looked like a giant onion. It wasn’t an onion though. He shrugged. “Sometimes. Why?”

Bruce shrugged back. “Oh, there’s nothing wrong with it, but your first thoughts for lunch, was a smoothie. I just wondered if that’s how you remember to eat regularly.”

Tony nodded thoughtfully. “Jarvis told me to try it. Said that when you don’t eat very often, it shrinks your stomach, and you’re less likely to remember to eat later. Jarvis taught Dummy how to make smoothies, and sometimes he messes up, but he makes sure I drink them during the day.”

Bruce got an odd look on his face. “You say, Jarvis  _ taught _ him, not that Jarvis  _ programmed _ him. Is Dummy an AI too?”

Tony nodded, eyes big. He turned on the blender and the room went into a loud whir for a few minutes before Tony turned it off again.

When he had the smoothie in a glass, he moved across the kitchen to sit across from Bruce at the table, not looking at any of them. After a minute, he started playing with the straw in the smoothie, looking off to the side of everyone. “Am I in trouble?”

“No. Of course not. You have had no control over this situation whatsoever, there is no way that you could be in trouble.” Clint said, taking a seat next to Tony at the rounded table. He looked confident enough that Tony nodded, taking the words to heart.

“That’s good. I never liked getting in trouble.”

Clint’s eye flickered to the side, where he could see the door frame to the room. “I never liked getting in trouble either. What’s your least favorite part?”

Tony looked back down at his smoothie, taking another few drinks. “I don’t like the dark much. It’s kind of scary.”

Clint tried not to think too hard about what that was implying. It obviously wasn’t anything good.

***

“You want me to… leave the penthouse?”

Howard was finally back in the room with Tony, and seemed to be standing there like a damn guard dog, not letting anyone get too close to him. To his son, who’s been  _ held captive _ for the last thirty-two years of his life.

This was really making Nick Fury’s life harder.

“Yes. I would like to have SHIELD medical look over you-“

“You’re dumber than you look, Nick Fury.”

Phil turned with both eyebrows raised, giving Tony an amused look. Howard seemed interested in this. This is the first time he’s seen Tony actually speak up for himself since getting here.

Nick looked anything but amused. “Why’s that, Stark?”

Tony rolled his eyes heavenwards. “Where are we, right now?”

Nick frowned deeper. “Stane Towers.”

Howard held back a growl at the name. He wanted to rip Obadiah’s throat out, and at least half the room seemed to agree with him on that. Tony nodded, looking like he was dealing with a particularly slow child. “You’ve got about fifteen issues you need to deal with before I can leave this penthouse. Number one, is the fact that your idiotic agents bursting in here like a bunch of men in black, has probably been caught on camera  _ somewhere _ . You don’t think that’s gonna tip Obie off if he hears about it? You  _ do _ want him arrested, right?”

Fury did growl a little bit, looking pissed, “Fuck. What are the other reasons?”

Tony snorted, “Well, second of all, we don’t  _ need _ to leave the tower. As far as my research shows me, Bruce is one of the world’s top geneticists,  _ and _ his lab is in the building. You don’t  _ need _ us to leave, you just want us in a place where you can better control us.”

“Control you, like Obadiah Stane did for the last thirty-two years?”

Clint had to be physically had back from throttling Fury by Phil. Tensions seemed to be high here.

“Yes. I’ve literally been held captive by a man for the  _ majority _ of my life, you don’t think that would give me some sort of nervousness about the idea of being controlled by a complete stranger? No thanks, if you’re going to be that way, I’ll stick with the devil I know.”

Fury looked like he might have an actual throbbing vein in his temple. “Another reason?”

Tony leaned back with a smirk. Clint wasn’t sure why he was smirking; maybe he just liked having the upper hand on someone for once in his life. “If I leave the penthouse, the silent alarm goes off. I turned it off for you all to get up here without it alerting Obie, but I can’t turn it off for me to leave. I mean, he’s out of the country, if I leave, he wouldn’t be able to get back in time to stop me from getting to someone for help, but it would be enough time for him to make his own escape. Believe it or not, I want him locked up.” Tony looked down at the table, jaw working before he forced more words out. “I want him locked up for the rest of his life, so he knows what it feels like.”

Fury sighed. Not even he could argue with that one. And, despite the cocky demeanor of the brat sitting in front of him, he couldn’t find fault in his anger.

“How come you can turn off one alarm, and not the other?”

Tony looked over at Howard, and caught himself staring again.

Howard looked almost exactly the same as he did when Tony was little… just a little more tired. “I… the silent alarm that notifies Obie of anyone other than me in the penthouse, that one’s run through Jarvis. I created Jarvis though, and so I have all the base codes. I can pretty much change anything Obie tries to do to him and my bots. I don’t like him messing with my babies. But… the tracker for me isn’t run through Jarvis, because Obie knows I can control that one. I think he lets me because he can’t actually figure out a way around it. The silent alarms are triggered by a few things, and one of them is Jarvis telling anyone that I’m up here. The third one, depends on my physical movement in relation to the building structure.”

Howard looked horrified, “If that’s true, that means that Obadiah’s-“

“Got a tracker in me? Yeah. It’s not something I can get removed though, otherwise I’d have dug it out years ago. I don’t care if I have to carve myself up with a rusty scalpel, if I could get it out, I would have.”

Clint suddenly got it, face falling. “Oh god, it’s in your prosthetic, isn’t it?”

Howard looked suddenly concerned, “You have a prosthetic? Is it removable?”

Tony winced. “Uh… it’s removable, but if I remove it for more than a few minutes, I die.”

“How’s that? What’s it for?”

Tony started chewing on his bottom lip for a minute while he weighed the pros and cons of showing them. Finally, he shrugged, and started fingering the hem of his shirt.

Only a few people had ever seen it. Yensin, who’d helped him put it in, who was dead now, and Obadiah, who’s fucked with it so many times, that Tony could no longer trust the man to be in the same room as him while he wasn’t fully dressed.

He looked up at the people in the room, and resisted the urge to bite at his thumb. Obie used to yell at him for doing it, before finally giving in when he realized it kept him quiet. He… no one in this room was like him… not even Fury, who made him want to argue and act like a brat to. No, even Fury, Tony trusted more than Obie.

He pulled the tee shirt up and off with a single move, looking down at the table so he wouldn’t have to look at him.

Howard was the first one moving towards him. The only one. Tony stilled, looking nervous, but even the way the Howard came at him, was completely different than Obie would have, kneeling in front of him to get a better look at it without touching him. “My god, it is. How on Earth did you make it so small, Tony? I never made any plans for it working any smaller than I had made it.”

Tony shrugged, “Well, when you know you’ll die without it, you do some pretty impressive things.”

Howard frowned, and Tony shifted a little closer for him to get a better look.

“What, exactly, is that?”

Tony bit his lip again, but Howard answered for him, “It’s an arc reactor. Meant for self sustaining, long term power generation. Tony, what’s it powering?”

Tony looked down again, voice small, “Electro magnet. It’s keeping shrapnel from getting at my heart. I’d be dead in minutes if it wasn’t there.”

Howard’s lips went into a thin line. “Was there a lab explosion?”

Tony shook his head. “Obie… Obie didn’t always keep me locked up. He does when we’re in the United States, and he doesn’t exactly let me  _ wander _ while in other countries, but he doesn’t keep me hidden in other places. We were in Afghanistan, he was introducing a new design I finished for him, we got attacked. They held me in a cave for three months, and I think Obie tried to pay them to let me go, but I had to break out myself. I had the reactor, and that’s about it though.”

Howard looked like he wanted to be sick. If he hadn’t lived through wars himself, he would have. “There was a war in Afghanistan? And Obie just walked you right into it, huh? I’m going to do horrible things to him if left alone with him.”

Tony shrugged. “He tried to pay to get me back.”

Howard raised an eyebrow. “Why’d they take you in the first place?”

Tony shrugged, “There’s a lot of rumors going around, for the past twenty or so years. Rumors that Obie isn’t the one that makes the tech he says he does. They tried to get me to make missiles for them.”

Howard nodded, face tight while he gently reached out to prod at it. Tony stiffened, but let him. Howard’s eyes squinted at the reactor. “How long have you had this in you?”

Tony looked down at it. “Um… about ten years now I think? It happened sometime early 2000’s.”

Howard took in a sharp breath. “That cannot be palladium. You’d be dead if you were living off of palladium for two years, much less ten, Tony.”

Tony nodded, “It’s not.”

Howard paused, a finger lightly tracing over part of the arc reactor that didn’t really fit in. “And, what did you use instead? I’ve tried for years now to find a replacement that wouldn’t burn out.”

Their voices were quiet, but Clint seemed to be the only one actually having any issues hearing them. These weren’t his SHIELD field issue hearing aids, they didn’t work nearly as well.

“You  _ did _ find the right one though.”

Howard looked shocked, studying his son carefully. “I’m not sure if… should I be shocked by that, or is creating new elements now days as usual as anything else?”

Tony gave the faintest smile. “Well, I don’t like to brag much, but that’s mostly because Obie’s the only one I have to brag to, and he doesn’t like it.”

Howard looked almost stupidly proud. “You brilliant boy. Is this the chip?”

Tony looked down at Howard’s finger still lightly resting on the oddity of the reactor, and nodded. “I have a few other reactors. The chip’s in the same place in all of them. You can try and see if any of them are removable, but I’ve been trying for about five years to get them out now, haven’t succeeded yet.”

Howard put a hand up to scratch at the stubble on his chin, looking thoughtful. “How fast can you make a new one?”

Tony cocked his head to the side, thoughtful. “I made the first one in under a week, and I’ve had more than a bit of practice since then.” He frowned though, looking to the side. “We need the chip out, but I’m not actually sure how much time we have. I can’t just ask Obie to come back yet and say fuck it to getting the chip out, because he’s got the kill switch.

“He can liquefy the reactors with the press of a button. I mean, I could try a counter acid to keep them from being destroyed, but I don’t know what’s in the chips. I could try and build a new one, but he doesn’t give me access to certain elements unless he knows what I’m using them for, and all of my last few attempts to get a hold of them have been shot down. I think he knows I’m trying. I don’t see how we have enough time before he realizes something is up. Even if we scrap everything we’ve done so far, and act like no one knows I’m here, he’s going to figure it out, and I don’t think we’ll have enough time for that.”

Someone cleared their throat quietly and Tony looked up to see Bruce, who was cringing. “I think I might know how to fix this fast.”

***

Tony looked nervous, and Howard had already ushered several people out of the room after Bruce had explained his idea, not liking the way that half the Avengers –and isn’t that stupid? Living in a tower full of superheros- back out of the room with all of the SHIELD agents. He’d given Fury a firm, slightly angry look when he’d tried to follow them, and Nick was suddenly hit with the realization that this man had  _ created _ SHIELD, and probably could make his life slightly more hellish than Barton already did.

He’d wisely shut up and stayed with everyone else.

Tony looked between Bruce and Howard. “He’s going to ask to see me. He’s going to tell me to turn on the face time. If I don’t look sick enough, he won’t freak out like he should. He’ll realize something’s wrong and won’t come back. He’ll run away.”

Howard smoothed a hand down Tony’s hair. It wasn’t going to be  _ too _ hard to convince Obie something was wrong, Tony was already sweating nervously and looked pale, and like he hadn’t slept in a long time. “I know, Tony. I just need you to let Bruce give you the medication now. It’s going to make your head feel  bit fuzzy, but you’re going to need it soon after he hangs up anyways.”

Tony frowned at the syringe in Bruce’s hand. Every time Obie needed to put him out for something, he always woke up with something bad on him. His lower lip nearly split he was biting it so hard, but Howard smoothed a thumb against the goatee underneath it, just hard enough to get Tony to let it go.

It’d be bad if Obie thought he’d had a nervous tick, he’d probably suspect him of lying.

Tony looked back at him with wide eyes, and Howard just gave him a hard look. “Tony, I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you while you’re out. When you wake up, everything is going to be okay. We just need you to convince Obie to come back early.”

Tony nodded, and held his hand out for Bruce to put the injection in.

He nodded, and started scratching at the injection site, feeling a bit nervous. He looked down at the spot and started scratching harder, trying to make it look like a rash before bringing his other hand up to try and do the same for his neck. It’d be best if Obadiah thought he was getting sicker as the call went. “Jarvis, call Obie up, please.”

“Of course, Sir.”

They could hear the ringing through the speakers for a few seconds before Obadiah answered. “Anthony, you know not to call while I’m working, this better be important.”

Howard resisted the urge to growl at the tone, but Tony paused next to him, before finally speaking up. His voice was small and worried. “Obie?”

Obadiah paused too, before coming back just as quick, “Anthony, I don’t have any time for you to play games right now. What do you need?”

Tony frowned, and he lip started wobbling. Howard freaked out for a second before he realized Tony was working his jaw. Method crying abilities, it seemed. “No no, Obie, you need to come home. Come home  _ right now _ , Obie.”

Obadiah sighed, “Anthony, you know I don’t listen to bratty boys who don’t know how to respect people-“

Tony shook his head, nose wrinkling up, “No  _ no _ Obie! Something’s wrong, Obie!”

“What is it, Tony? Those damn Avengers better not be snooping around. If that dumb bird is in the vents again, tell Jarvis to turn up the heat and insist it was a malfunction.”

Tony bite his lip, letting out a pained whimper, “Not that, Obie. Don’t feel good. You need to come back, I don’t feel good.”

Tony leaned back against the chair, suddenly starting to feel a bit dizzy. His eyes were already half hooded, and he could tell he was going to pass out soon. Maybe if he did it half way through the conversation, Obie would be worried enough to come back.

“Jarvis, turn on the facetime, I want to see him.”

Tony tried to make some token protests, and everyone other than him in the room took a few steps back so they wouldn’t accidentally get in the shot. The screen flickered to life in front of him on the table, and Tony blinked warily at it. He reached up one hand to scratch at the irritated skin on his neck, knowing that Obie was tracking him movements, even if Tony’s eyes were mostly shut.

“Anthony, stop that.”

Tony gave a few more, slightly vicious scratches against the sensitive skin, and whined, pulling back. He sat up a little, and blinked tiredly at the screen. “Obie, I don’t feel so good.”

Obadiah made a –fake- concerned noise. “What’s wrong, Anthony?”

Tony blinked for a few seconds before getting back on track. “Everything’s hot. I think I’m dying. I think I threw up something that looked like blood? But… I don’t… can’t see very well… I’m not sure.”

Obadiah did look slightly more concerned at that, but in more of a ‘shit, my biggest asset my die, that’s cause for concern’ than in any actual convoluted idea of actual affection.

“Jarvis, is he having an allergic reaction? He knows where the epipens are, I don’t need him calling me up every time he gets a tummy ache.”

Howard wanted to punch the man in his stupid balding face, hands fisting at his sides while he watched it.

He felt a hand on his arm, and looked over to see Steve, not much happier than he was, but still, trying to keep him calm. It oddly worked. He couldn’t even remember why he’d missed Steve so much after Tony had been born, he was so damn focused on his son, but right now, he remembered, and he felt an  _ ache _ in his chest.

He could deal with that later, right now, he needed to get Tony safe. He didn’t just get his baby back, thirty-two years later, just to lose him again to the same man that took him the first time.

If anyone was stupid enough to let him in the same room at Stane later, he’d rip the man’s guts out and force feed them to him.

Jarvis spoke up, tone clipped as if he was running out of patience, and angry in a way Howard hadn’t imagined an AI could sound.

“He’s not having an allergic reaction. I believe he’s been poisoned.”

Tony jerked when he found himself with his head falling forward against his chest, barely keeping his eyes open. Bruce said it wouldn’t be enough to make him fall asleep unless he didn’t fight it, but Tony had the sudden worrying suspicion that Bruce might not have compensated for the fact that he was a grown man who’d only ever used medications a few times in his life.

Sure, he had pain killers in the apartment, but he had restricted access to them, after the first time Obadiah had found him trying to swallow the whole bottle, and now he rarely used them.

He let out an upset whimper, feeling like things were quickly slipping out of his control. He almost didn’t even hear Jarvis and Obadiah arguing in the background, suddenly feeling the need to get back in control of himself before he fucked this up.

He stood, but ended up careening into the table since his legs didn’t seem to be working, and slid to the floor. Everything felt too hot and bad. He was going to pass out, and that’s  _ not _ part of the plan. He could still hear Jarvis and Obadiah arguing loudly behind him, but the last thing he saw before passing out, was Howard, kneeling out of view of the camera, but close enough for Tony to try and reach out for him.

Before his eyes slipped closed, he heard a round of screaming come from the other room, before a towering, metal form appeared in the doorway, pushing aside anyone in its way to try and get at its creator.

Shit.

***

When Tony woke up, there was a moment of silence in his head.

Before he remembered.

Shit, he’s alive? Christ, he’d expected that to be the last thing he’d ever see, and here he was, opening his eyes.

“Tony, Tony, sweet boy, can you open your eyes for me, baby? Please, just open them up?”

Tony turned his head towards the sound, and it took him a minute to place the voice before his eyes fluttered open. “’ad?”

Howard had a smile on his face, eyes red rimmed, but looking so  _ relieved _ that it almost hurt to look at. “Oh thank god, you’re awake.”

Tony looked at the ceiling, and had to blink a few more times. His head felt foggy, and he wasn’t sure his limbs would be working for a while. “Happened?”

Howard frowned a little. “Um, that’s a little hard to… SHIELD got the reactors out of the US and over the ocean before they could do any actual damage to populated areas… but Obie set the acid traps off as soon as he got into the airport.”

Tony nodded, eyes fluttering for a minute before they opened up again. “Noth-… uh… nothing in?”

Howard shook his head, “They got everything out of your chest. You were in surgery for seven hours. They got it all out, and Bruce says you should be healed within a month or two. After you passed out, Obadiah made Jarvis contact a medic to try and revive you, and didn’t freak out when you got taken out of the penthouse because of it.”

Tony nodded, fuzzy eyes flickering towards the ceiling. “J…”

“I’m with you sir. You’re still in the tower. I don’t think you’ve ever been on this floor. This is the same floor that Doctor Banner has his lab on.”

Tony nodded, blinking fuzzily. “Iron?”

Howard answered that, gently tilting Tony’s head for him, to face the other side of the bed. While Howard had been planted in the chair on one side of the bed, with a tablet in his lap, reading up on all the years he’d missed in the world, another figure had been planted in the chair on the other side.

The suit of armor Tony had kept hidden from Obie for the last three years was sitting there, face plate tilted towards Tony’s sleeping body. Tony smiled a little. “Good boy.”

The semi-sentient armor’s eyes glowed hot white for a moment, before dimming again, and Tony could feel himself falling asleep once more.

“Tony, why did you build… him?”

Tony tiredly thought over the answer while he shoved his head back against the soft pillow. “Was going to use it to get rid of Obie. I got too scared to use him though. Kept him for in case Obie ever got too rough to handle.”

Howard took in a stuttering breath, leaning in to pet Tony’s matted hair back off his forehead. “Of course.”

***

Things were different.

They stayed in the tower. Tony won’t go back up to the penthouse, though. He’d asked his father to round up the bots there, and get them moved down to the floor the two of them had claimed at a personal lab for themselves.

Tony had never worked in the same space as anyone else but Obie before, and even then, Obie always stayed in one place, doing paper work.

It wasn’t so horrible to be honest. He found himself actually able to talk with someone without them constantly berating him for being too noisy.

Going outside? That… that one might take a bit of work.

“There’s so many people outside. I knew there were lots of people in New York, but I’ve never… why are there so many people outside?”

Phil was standing in the communal floor’s greenhouse with Tony, looking down at what seemed like dozens of reporters standing outside the building right now.

“I think they want to see you, maybe?”

Tony rolled his eyes. “That’s stupid. Why do other people think they always have the right to invade your privacy like that? Hasn’t my privacy been invaded enough?”

Phil nodded a hand on Tony’s shoulder. Tony was slowly getting more and more used to physical contact that wasn’t of a violent nature, and it was almost amazing. “They also want to see your dad. The two of you went missing  _ thirty-two years _ ago, Tony. They just want to see if you both really are who you say you are.”

Tony sighed, still not fully understanding. Who would  _ want _ to pretend to be a kidnapped person who’s been abused their whole life?

***

 

“Tony, what was your original estimation for the blast radius and power of the arc reactor, if Obadiah set off the acid traps?”

 

Tony looked at Howard with wide eyes. He was currently trying to replace a frayed wire on Dummy’s arm, so he immediately went back to looking at the squirming bot. Tony would never understand why Dummy never liked having anything fixed, but out of the three bots, he was definitely the problem child. Howard was looking at the deactivated suit of armor’s readings with an intensity that worried Tony a little. Tony shrugged. “You’re looking at the facts, why not tell me?”

 

Howard closed the holoscreen with a tired look, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “I think, that if the arc reactor went off, it would be  _ just _ enough for the suit to keep the blast radius from killing anyone else in the immediate vicinity. I think you lied about why you built him.”

 

Tony looked at Howard head on, “So? I mean, if I was going to die, I wouldn’t want Obie to hurt anyone else.”

 

Howard nodded, “”i’m going to go see how everyone else in the tower is doing.”

 

Tony nodded, happy for the subject change, and let him leave without argue.

 

When Howard got up to the communal floor though, and found Steve and Bucky seated in the living room, he sat down at the same couch as Steve, looking tired. “What’s wrong, Howard?”

 

Howard let out a small laugh at that, “You think anything’s  _ right? _ I’m over thirty years in the future, and my son is apparently suicidal. I just realized, the only reason he’s been so good so Obadiah wouldn’t kill him before, is that he needed to make sure no one else would get hurt around him.”

 

“What?”

 

Howard’s jaw dropped for a second, before it clacked back shut again. He shook his head, shoulders coming up. “The suit. He built the suit so it would contain the blast radius and no one else would get hurt. That was probably before he found out there were too many reactors for that to work.”

 

Bucky got up off one of the other couches, sitting on the other side of the tired looking engineer. “That’s not too surprising. You realize you don’t exactly have the best track record for safe science either, right? I think it’s something in the Stark genes. Something about needing to further technology no matter the cost to yourself. The one step I haven’t seen either of you take, is ‘no matter the cost to anyone else’ because for you both, that’s too high.”

 

“This isn’t science, this is his kill switch. He built the suit so he could die without hurting anyone else.”

 

Bucky shrugged, “No, but does it surprise you that a person who’s been conditioned to build weapons his whole life, a boy who had a bomb,  _ literally _ with his name on it, nearly kill him, that he’d never be able to rest peacefully knowing that he’d killed anyone else in the process?”

 

Howard closed his eyes, looking tired. “Okay, just about all of you have been through worse than me,  _ one _ of you must have better coping mechanisms than I do, because right now, all I can think of is getting a drink, and I haven’t done that since before Tony was born, I am  _ not _ going back down that road. It was hell crawling out of it the first time. Also, none of you better encourage drinking in him, because as far as I know, Obadiah kept him  _ far _ away from anything alcoholic, and if this runs in his family, he’s not going to like it.”

 

Bucky sighed and shoved his left arm at him, making Howard gape for a moment before looking confused. “What do you want me to do with that?”

 

Bucky shrugged. “It distracts Tony. He says he can’t figure out how it works. I have no idea what to say to that, because I’m not  _ nearly _ as smart as either of you, but it shuts him up when he looks like he’s going to cry at something new.”

 

Howard looked at him suspiciously. “You  _ hate _ having it touched.”

 

Bucky shook his head, “No. I don’t  _ hate _ having it touched, but it does remind me of being with HYDRA.  _ That’s _ why I look upset when anyone touches it. But every time Tony tries to figure it out, and someone other than Steve can touch it without looking scared, or even like they want to use it as a weapon, I think it helps me to see that it’s not bad. It’s nice. It helps Tony calm down, and it makes me feel a little more human. I don’t mind.

 

“I don’t think Tony will ever get over having his chest touched by strangers, but I think that’s normal, because that reactor was the only thing powering his heart for ten years. He might never get over that. I can learn that when people touch my arm, it’s not because they want to use it to kill someone.”

 

He wouldn’t look at Howard though as the other man gently placed a hand on it though, as if he just needed a moment to process that he was actually offering for someone to touch it. But still, he didn’t tense up like Howard expected him to.

 

“You can take anything for ten seconds.”

 

They both looked at Steve with confused eyes. Steve shrugged. “It’s from a tv show I found on Netflix. A girl was trapped in an underground bunker for fifteen years, and she once said, while she was down there, that you can survive anything for ten seconds.”

 

“What do you do when the ten seconds are up?”

 

Steve looked a little sad. Howard had the feeling that he might have used this method a few times himself. “You start over. One through ten, again and again, till it seems like you might be able to count a little higher.”

 

“Does it work?”

 

Steve shrugged, eyes suspiciously wet, “I never got the chance to find out. I stopped counting when you and Bucky got here. I guess it passes the time.”

 

Howard nodded, hand still closed around Bucky’s metal fingers while they all felt  _ emotions _ over things. It was gross. They’d all prefer if this sort of thing didn’t happen again.

 

***

 

“We’re in the process of shutting down all the weapons manufacturing, right?”

 

Pepper nodded. She was currently acting CEO of Stark Industries while Howard and Tony were getting used to ‘future’ and ‘freedom’ right now. She was dating Natasha, so they both trusted her. Also, Tony seemed to be slightly in love with her, which is good, because he listens to her without arguing about anything. Also, so far she’s the only one other than the Avengers and Howard that can stand working with the semi-sentient armor when Tony needs her to.

 

“Yes. As you can imagine, some of the contract holders are very angry right now, one of them being the United States military.”

 

Howard rolled his eyes, “Well, since I kind of dealt with them the first time around, I think I can stand up to yelling my way through one more meeting now-”

 

“Actually, they’re not asking to talk with you, they want to speak with Tony, since he  _ is _ SI’s main weapons creator.”

 

Howard frowned, “That’s a bad idea. Tell them where they can shove it, I’m not forcing that on him.”

 

Pepper couldn’t hold back a small smile. Howard could cuss up a storm in private, but unlike Tony (and pretty much all the Avengers but Steve and Natasha to be honest) he could be a perfectly kind man in public. “Actually, they’ve kind of walked themselves into a corner with this one. They picked the wrong representative I think. If we send Tony in now, I doubt they would even argue with him because he’s apparently, got a fan.”

 

Howard raised an eyebrow, “They’re sending in someone who’s more likely to look at him adoringly than to actually try and argue? Why would they do that?”

 

Pepper took a seat across from Howard at the table, an amused look on her face. “They’re sending Colonel James Rhodes, a pilot and engineer in the Air Force, and one of their top weapons engineers. Just about everything they use goes through him first. Normally, he’d be a  _ perfect _ candidate. Unfortunately, for them at least, he’s on SI’s side on this one. They’re only sending him in because he’s so damn insistent on seeing Tony. He claims he knows him. Or, at least, that he’s met him before.”

 

Howard paused. “When?”

 

“Ten years ago.”

 

Howard was quiet a minute. “Was he with them in Afghanistan? One of Obadiah’s escorts?”

 

Pepper shook her head, “No. He was supposed to be, but he ended up on a fake med ecav mission, and on the way back, found a man wandering in the sand, trying to catch his attention. Colonel Rhodes few him back to their base, and Tony was in a medically induced coma from his damages for two days, before his body disappeared out of the medical ward.”

 

“...do you trust him?”

 

Pepper nodded, “As well as I know him. Not much, but I do trust that he’s not stupid. He’s not trying to convince Tony to change your minds, he’s not here to hurt him. Steve and Phil have both worked with him before, and I’m fairly sure Sam Wilson, Steve’s friend down in DC, has worked with him before. I’ve only worked with him once or twice, but I’ve never gotten the feeling that he was anything like Obadiah Stane.”

 

Howard sighed, scrubbing a hand over his eyes. “Fine. As long as they’ll finally agree to close their contracts, I don’t care. Just make sure someone’s on hand in case Tony has a panic attack. Those get pretty bad.”

 

***

 

Tony wasn’t sure what to make of the man they were making him go into a meeting with right now. They had never actually forced him into talking with anyone before now, and Tony had the feeling that they would have backed off if Tony had asked them to, but there was something about someone saying they knew him.

 

Even just for a moment. It was a rarity in Tony’s life, that hadn’t happened since he was six. In fact, he’s pretty sure it’s happened less than ten times since then.

 

He quietly opened the meeting room door, and the Colonel stood up, making eye contact.

 

Tony almost immediately looked down. He didn’t like eye contact much. He didn’t like people handing him things, and he was thinking about asking Howard to teach him how to drive, because he was quickly finding out that even when the bodyguard and driver Pepper had found him -a man named  _ Happy  _ and Tony couldn’t figure out if he wanted to laugh at that or not yet- Tony didn’t exactly like being driven around.

 

Too many memories of Obie telling him that he’s ‘not allowed in the front seat’ and making him feel like a tantruming five year old when Tony wasn’t being good.

 

James Rhodes held out a hand for Tony to shake, before awkwardly putting it back down when Tony stared at it for a few seconds too long.

 

Tony sat down across from him and pulled out a folder, pushing it across the table. “Pepper says you don’t actually want to argue. I’d like it if you could just sign these then.”

 

Rhodes frowned, opening up the folder with a slightly uncomfortable look on his face. He went through the papers for a minute, before putting them back down when he saw that everything was in order.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Tony’s eyes went big. “Excuse me?”

 

Rhodes looked a little lost for a minute, before taking a deep breath. “I… I’m sorry I never looked for you. I’m sorry I didn’t argue enough when you went missing from the medical ward. I’m sorry that I didn’t realize who you were. I’m sorry.”

 

Tony was quiet for a minute, before folding his hands on top of the table. “Listen, none of that is your fault. You weren’t the one that kept me locked up for thirty-two years. You weren’t the one that did anything to me that Obie did. You have no reason to apologize to me.”

 

Rhodes looked sad, “You… you could have been out ten years ago. You could have been free, Stane in a prison cell-”

 

Tony shrugged, “That’s not what happened though. Stop thinking about it. I’m tired of everyone around me blaming themselves for what happened. As far as I know, only one person is to blame, and he’s not here.”

 

Rhodes nodded, “Alright.”

 

Tony nodded, feeling more confident than he had for the entirety of his life. “Good. I’ll be fine, I just need everyone around me to stop acting like I won’t. That’s not how you get better.”

 

“I can do that.”

**Author's Note:**

> That was a lot less gay than I wanted it to be...
> 
> Okay, please do not tell me about editing errors, I literally could not give less of a fuck. I didn't write this for you.


End file.
